30 Years Later: The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism
Today marks 30 years since the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history: the Oklahoma City bombing.
On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, an ex-Army soldier and security guard, parked a rented Ryder truck filled with a bomb made from agricultural fertilizer and diesel fuel in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. After locking the truck, he walked to his getaway car.
The explosion killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured hundreds more. It was the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism the country had seen.
Five years later, the Oklahoma bombing would be overshadowed by the 9/11 attacks, but how many still remember April 19, 1995?
The bombing came after a series of armed standoffs between right-wing extremists and the U.S. government: Ruby Ridge in 1992 and Waco in 1993. Armed militias and conspiracy theorists were confronting the government under a twisted notion of freedom.
Right-wing terrorism had been simmering for years—groups had already been attacking abortion clinics for over a decade. After the bombing, the FBI and local law enforcement infiltrated far-right networks, arresting many of their leaders.
Fast forward to 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a report on the rise of far-right terrorism. One section highlighted the growing link between extremism and returning military veterans:
“Right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans to exploit their military training. These skills… have the potential to empower extremists, including ‘lone wolves’ or small terrorist cells.”
This report sparked outrage from conservative politicians and pundits who claimed it unfairly targeted their views. They argued that the report was politically motivated. In response, DHS publicly apologized, disbanded the domestic terrorism team, and reassigned its members to focus on Muslim extremism.
This was part of a larger, deliberate effort by conservatives to shield right-wing terrorism from scrutiny. It was a political strategy designed to deflect from false claims about President Obama’s supposed connections to left-wing domestic terrorism. The reality was that they didn’t want to discuss their own violent fringe.
More troubling was the fact that the ideological distance between mainstream conservatism and the violent far right had been shrinking, particularly in the U.S.
In the years since, attacks by right-wing extremists have only increased. Between 2007 and 2011, there were fewer than five attacks per year. By 2017, the number jumped to 31. Arrests of right-wing extremists also spiked in 2018.
These attacks have mostly been carried out by white supremacists and “sovereign citizens”—a loose network of individuals who oppose government functions like taxation. Many perpetrators were lone actors or small white supremacist cells.
The rise in right-wing violence has been driven by several factors. The election of an African American president, Barack Obama, angered many on the far right. A perceived increase in immigration from countries like Mexico and Syria further fueled their rage.
But it was President Donald Trump’s rhetoric that truly energized far-right extremists. His language often aligned with their violent beliefs.
Many of these attacks were low in death tolls. For instance, in September 2017, white supremacist Kenneth Gleason killed an African-American man, Donald Smart, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Others were deadlier, such as the 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where Dylann Roof murdered nine people in a racist attack.
US law enforcement’s response to far-right violence has often been lenient. Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two left-wing protesters, was acquitted. Similarly, the January 6th insurrectionists received Trump’s approval, with many of them later pardoned.
Trump’s relationships with far-right groups like the Proud Boys, QAnon, and the Charlottesville rioters revealed his sympathies toward these violent factions. His actions were not motivated by public opinion, but by a strategic alignment with the paramilitary arm of the MAGA movement.
As Timothy Snyder warns in On Tyranny:
“When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh.”
Barbara F. Walter’s How Civil Wars Start adds:
“Yugoslavia didn’t erupt into civil war because Croats and Serbs and Bosniaks had an innate, primordial hatred for one another. It erupted because opportunistic leaders tapped into fears and resentments, then released well-armed thugs on the population to gain power.”
The Oklahoma City bombing was not just a tragic day in U.S. history. It marked the beginning of a long, dangerous trend that continues to shape the political landscape today. The question remains: How far will right-wing extremism go before we take it seriously?
https://www.csis.org/analysis/rise-far-right-extremism-united-states
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/16/obama-rightwing-extremism-threat
https://www.adl.org/resources/report/right-wing-extremist-terrorism-united-states